Young Blues ready for cup final

18/04/2017

The Blues travel to Manchester City’s Academy Stadium this evening for the first leg of the FA Youth Cup final.

Chelsea are looking to lift the trophy for an incredible fourth successive season, having won it five times in the last seven years!

Jody Morris, who played in the Youth Cup himself as a young Chelsea player, has managed his side to six impressive wins in the competition this season.

The Under-18s scored 15 goals in the first four rounds without reply, and then beat Tottenham 9-2 over the two semi-final legs. Manchester City have scored two fewer goals in the competition.

Chelsea have also outscored their opponents in the league, scoring 100 goals in all competitions this season to Manchester City's 99.

Morris knows that his team will have to be even better in the final, however.

‘We’ve been close to playing really well,’ he continues. ‘Away at
White Hart Lane [in the first leg of the semi-final] we were excellent
but still conceded a poor goal and missed chances. I’ve talked about it a
lot this season but we know we have to be clinical in front of goal
against the best teams, like we were in previous finals. It’s rare in a
final to create 10 or 11 chances so the team that takes their
opportunities will give themselves a great chance of winning.

‘If we defend like we can then we know we will create chances but
it’s whether we take them and don’t gift goals away as we did against
Spurs and in recent league games against City and Man United. We didn’t
concede in the Cup up until the semi-finals but we haven’t been as
defensively solid as we have been previously and we know we need to
tighten up going into this final.’

The Citizens got the better of Chelsea in their last meeting, beating Morris's men 2-0 in the league. Like tonight's final first leg, the match was played in Manchester.

In fact, both teams have been brilliant at home for a while: neither side has lost to a travelling team for almost two years.

This means that a good result for Chelsea tonight would put them on the front foot going into the second leg at home.

The first-leg of the FA Youth Cup final kicks off at 7.45pm this evening. Check out BridgeKids tomorrow for a full match report.